


Present Past

by ShaeTiann



Series: Between Worlds [2]
Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Gen, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:02:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25450588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShaeTiann/pseuds/ShaeTiann
Summary: Now that things have calmed down, Ahsoka has some decisions to make.
Series: Between Worlds [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1831423
Comments: 22
Kudos: 324





	Present Past

**Author's Note:**

> People have already suggested a few prompts for this, but Ahsoka's situation needed to be established first

"So, Jedi. What's the best way to get you back to your people?"

Ahsoka bit the inside of her lip. The Mandalorians had cleaned up after whatever the hell kind of ambush had hit them, a huge number of Death Watch's forces were either out of commission permanently or had surrendered -- particularly after hearing that Tor Vizsla was dead -- and the camp wasn't quite celebrating but was definitely not fully sober. She looked down into her mug of  _ ne'tra gal; _ the convor perched in the tree overhead reflected in the depths of the dark liquid, looking down at her with golden eyes.

What could she even  _ say _ to the Mand'alor? The Jedi… weren't dead. They existed all over the galaxy now, shining like stars in the back of her mind. It was likely she had the portal transition to thank for dulling her wider sense of the galaxy for the first few hours; she'd been able to focus on doing what needed to be done. But once the battle had wound down, Ahsoka had gone numb from the surge of  _ awareness, _ the Force not being so Dark and shadowed as it had been before. The Mandalorians, familiar to post-battle blank-outs, had simply given her work to do and she did it on autopilot for a while.

But now things had settled down and she'd had a moment to sneak a peek at someone's datapad chrono.

She'd been thrown forty-nine years into the past. Ahsoka Tano didn't even exist yet; her Grandmaster would be a toddler in the Temple creche. More to the point, the Emperor wasn't in power, and whatever had diminished the Jedi over the centuries -- she could feel it, tendrils of darkness snaking through the galaxy like rot -- hadn't yet begun actively eradicating them. So many Jedi, mysteriously lost on missions gone wrong. There might still be time to save them all.

But.  _ But. _

The portal had brought her  _ here _ for a reason -- to save Jaster's life, perhaps? To keep her out of the Sith's reach as long as possible?

If she went back to Coruscant now, the Sith would swiftly become aware of her -- she'd done enough research on Sheev Palpatine to know that, whoever  _ his _ Master had been, they had likely also had extensive political ties. They might try to kill her, or they might move their plans up. Better to keep them in the dark as long as possible, right?

So that left dealing with the Mandalorians, and particularly a Mand'alor who didn't seem opposed to working with a Jedi.

_ "I _ want to know where a Jedi learned to handle a blaster like that," Jaster's son said as he dropped onto the log beside her, his own  _ gal _ sloshing a little in his hand. And that was the weirdest part: seeing  _ Rex-Cody-Waxer-Boil-Fives-Echo- _ as a fourteen year old with floofy, curly hair and an easy, cheeky grin.

She grinned back. "All Jedi can use blasters. We just choose not to."

"Why not?" someone else asked. "I've never seen precision shooting like that outside of the Keldabe festival demonstrations."

Ahsoka and Jaster had agreed that her flashing lightsabers against Death Watch would lead to potential diplomatic problems, and she'd returned to using the blasters she'd scrounged. She'd been aiming for kneecaps and hands, disabling shots only -- stun settings didn't have nearly enough range on a battlefield, and the armour would have mitigated the effect. She shrugged. "Because it's much easier to take a life with a lightsaber, it forces us to regulate the amount of intent we put into a fight."  _ Four Death Watch soldiers in one move, heads toppling to the ground, and at sixteen she was already so inured to the feeling of people dying around her that it had barely registered that the lives had been claimed by her own hand in her effort to escape. _ "Killing people  _ affects _ Jedi, because of how we develop our connection to the Force. It's hard to explain. But we're not meant to be soldiers."  _ Or Generals. They should never have been Generals. _ "You can't deflect blaster bolts with blasters, anyway."

"Not with _that_ attitude," someone else laughed.

"But you've clearly had combat experience." Jaster was looking at her from across the circle, and his gaze had a measuring weight to it that… well, he reminded her of Master Obi-Wan.

Mandalorians appreciated directness, in her experience. They also appreciated having all the information before going into anything; surprises meant mistakes. Ahsoka sipped at her drink, hearing the contented burr of the convor in her ear -- none of them had asked about it. Maybe having a bird companion was just the sort of strangeness they expected from a Jedi. "So. Here's the thing. I'm not a Jedi. I was," she said quickly in response to Jaster's raised eyebrow. "But… I left. And then… things happened. And the Order was destroyed."

_ "Destroyed?!" _

"Are you serious?!"

"There's no way--"

_ "Please," _ Ahsoka begged, cutting through the ripple of shock. "This is… difficult. It was sixteen years ago, for me.  _ This _ is the  _ past, my _ past. I don't even exist yet, and the Jedi definitely don't know I'm here."

Jango shifted sideways on the log to face her. "I  _ knew _ something was up with you! It's all Force  _ osik, _ isn't it?"

Ahsoka sighed. "That's a good way to put it. I was in a place where there were… portals, to other places, other times. Important events. I picked this one." She glanced at Jaster, who hadn't so much as twitched. "This is Korda 6. In my past, you died here. And Tor Vizsla survived." Best not to mention everything Death Watch had got up to since then. Maybe Galidraan wouldn't happen now, since Tor wasn't alive to direct it.

But who had been directing Tor? Death Watch were being funded by someone, and she was willing to bet it was the Sith.

The teenager had gone rigid beside her. "Not Jas…."

"Well, clearly things are different now," Jaster said. He seemed calm, but Ahsoka could feel his brain ticking over, a controlled swirl of distress, anguish, rage, satisfaction, and something that was too disciplined to call excitement. "Whether you helped us for the sake of helping, or for your own ends, we still appreciate it."

Ahsoka bared her teeth in a tight grin, letting fangs show. "Death Watch were my enemies, too. I had no idea who you were at the time, but I wasn't going to let him kill you."

"So what does this mean for you?" Jango asked. "You just changed your past, shouldn't you be, like… disappearing?"

"I don't know." She studied the convor overhead, which appeared to be sleeping. "If I changed my past so that none of the things that make me who I am happened, then maybe I wouldn't have gone through the portal, Jaster would have died, I would have used the portal…. It would create a causality loop. Unless something happens in  _ this _ future which still sends me back?" That was a thought. What was going to happen  _ now? _ She shook her head. "There's too much to control for, and too much I don't know about how things collapsed. But I know the Sith were backing Death Watch, and I'm going to find them."

All the Mandalorians were staring at her with something like respect. Jaster was rolling things over in his head again, she could _ feel _ it, but after a minute he chugged the last of his ale and gestured for a refill. "We lost a couple today. Rem, see if Nari's gear fits her and strip the sigils. Put mine on it, for now. And see about finding something to hide her  _ kadë _ in." He grinned at Ahsoka's stunned expression. "We'll hide you in plain sight, Ashla. And maybe hit the bastards before they hit us."

**Author's Note:**

> Time travel and the alternative universes it creates is always such a tough concept to handle, and it always begs the question of whether the people one encounters after a jump backwards are still the same people as in their original past. For the purposes of this fic, I'm leaning on the power of the World Between Worlds and the characters' certainty in Rebels that alterations made via the WBW will alter their lived universe rather than creating a new alternative time stream.
> 
> But what this means for Ahsoka? We'll find out!


End file.
